1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a tray used in a case of setting fabric, namely a material to be textile-printed, and an ink jet textile-printing apparatus which executes a printing process using the tray.
2. Related Art
An ink jet textile-printing apparatus which prints a desired image through discharging ink of each color on a surface of a fabric, such as a T-shirt, using an ink discharge head has been developed and widely used.
In this case, a setting/fixing work in which a fabric to be printed is positioned and fixed at a predetermined setting position on a main body of a tray is performed before a printing process. Hitherto, the setting/fixing work has been carried out by determining the setting position of the fabric using the sense of a user while the user checks a relative position between the fabric to be set and the main body with his or her eyes.
In addition, the fabric capable of being printed by the ink jet textile-printing apparatus includes a fabric having a relatively small size, such as gloves or socks, aside from a fabric having a relatively big size, such as a T-shirt. When such a small fabric is set on the main body, it is difficult to perform a setting process of the setting position of the fabric.
Therefore, JP-A-2004-284305 discloses the configuration where a second platen used at the time of performing printing with respect to the small fabric, such as gloves or socks. According to the configuration, the second platen facilitates the setting work with respect to the small fabric, such as gloves or socks, whereby the unevenness of the setting position of the fabric is suppressed.
However, in the case of setting the small fabric, such as gloves or socks, using the second platen, the setting process of the setting position of the fabric is not performed precisely because a user determines the relative position between the fabric to be set and the second platen without using any criterion except his or her sense.
Also, the small fabric to be printed by the ink jet textile-printing apparatus also includes one in the shape of sheet such as a handkerchief, but it is unable to use the second platen at the time of setting such a small sheet-shaped fabric on the main body. Therefore, the size difference between the fabric to be set and the main body is great in this case, whereby it is more difficult to perceive the relative position therebetween.
On the other hands, in the case of setting the fabric having a size bigger than that of the main body on the main body, when such a large fabric is set on the main body, the main body is covered with the large fabric. Therefore, it is also difficult to perceive the relative position between the fabric to be set and the main body.
Furthermore, in the case of printing a small image on a part of the fabric by one point, the size of the image to be actually printed is too small with respect to a feasible printing area, whereby there is a problem that the setting of the printing position of the image with respect to the fabric is difficult to be performed.